"Homeless" in Guadalajara

Between my junior and senior years in high school, I traveled with the Spanish club to Mexico.  We planned a week in Guadalajara, where we would attend an institute to learn more of the Mexican culture.  During this time we would stay with a host family in Guadalajara.  We were each assigned a room mate who would stay at the same home with us.  My partner was Gordon from Brigham City. 
We arrived at Guadalajara later in the day. 

We went to the institute where we were going to received instruction during the day for the next week.  From there we were loaded into taxi cabs.  The drivers had the address of the home where we were going to stay.  This was all good, but when the taxi driver arrived at ours, he couldn't find the home from the address given.  He looked up and down the street, but nobody knew of us or the family we were seeking.  He finally asked us what we wanted to do, and in our broken Spanish, asked him to take us back to the place where we started.
We got our stuff out of the taxi, to discover that there was no one at the institute and it was all locked up.  We found a patch of grass where I guess we figured we would spend the night, or at least wait for someone to return and figure out what to do with us. 
Within a half hour of our being there someone stopped and asked us what we were doing.  This was a family with a car who were missionaries from the United States serving in Guadalajara.  We explained our predicament.  At this point they invited us to their home for dinner, and to figure things out from there.

While we were eating, the father of the family called the institute and actually got ahold of someone.  They people at the institute had heard of us not arriving as the host family had also called them.  Arrangements were made for us to spend the night where we were, and then the next day after breakfast they would return us to the institute.  The family had a son a close to our age, so we had a place to stay and were fed well; and returned to the institute the next day, no harm done.
The next day when we arrived out the correct address, we realized we were close the day before.  We were only a few blocks away, but a wide highway separated was between where we had been, and the actual address.  We had been close to the Catholic Church, Church of the Cross. 

Mexico with Señor Oswald: Guadalajara

Guadalajara was fun, but not a first day.  We arrived at the institute where they put us all in taxis to host families.  The taxi couldn't find our family, so he drove us back to the institute and dumped us off.  We would have spent the night on the grass, but a family of missionaries picked us up and kept us that night.  We had free time every day.  I roomed with a kid from Brigham City named Gordon.  Our family took us for a riding tour of the city.  One night we visited the baseball stadium to watch the Jalisco Jays play.  They were semi-professional level.  They had a very large Black man playing first base who was very good.  We drove past the soccer stadium, which of course was much larger than the baseball stadium.  Gordon and I attending a dance at the Mormon church for young mens while we were there.  It was really fun, except for the drink the served.  I don't know what it was other than nasty.  There were many girls to dance with.  Gordon and I also found ourselves at a playground with outdoor basketball.  We took on a couple of locals, and lost to our shame.  With the group of travelers we visited a glass industry and watched people blow glass.  I purchased glasses but we were warned not to actually use them for the lead in the glass.  One night there was a big party at a host's home.  They paid for mariachi and it was a big deal.  It was fun with great food.
We ate mostly with our host family, cornflakes with bananas for breakfast, and then traditional dinner.  This often included tortillas.  Left over tortillas were used for making soup, and a pasta like dish.  I remember a big cockroach in the bathroom.  I didn't know what to do with it so I killed it with my shoe and left it there.  We also ate out often.  There was an ice cream shop close to the institute.  the institute was also close to a cathedral. 

The institute where we arrived the first day, and where we returned every day for class

The cathedral.  There were two old and new

glass blowing

views of Guadalajara

This guy taught us songs at the institute including Ay Jalisco

Church by where we stayed

One of the host families sponsored a party for us with mariachi

and dancing

Traveling through Matzatlan with Señor Oswald.

Boarding the bus in Logan

Between my Junior and Senior years of high school, (summer of 1974) I traveled with a group of Spanish students from Sky View to Mexico for a week.  Señor Oswald organized the trip.  Our destination was an institute in Guadalajara.  I can only remember that Terry Caldwell was with us, and perhaps Claudia Houston.  Our first significant stop was Mazatlan.  We crossed the border at Nogales, having gone through Phoenix and Tucson, and continued south to Hermosillo.  In Hermosillo, one of our group paid a couple of kids to have a race so he could see how fast they could run.  We made it to Mazatlan for the night, and were there a couple days.  One day we spent on the beach, and one of our party learned about jelly fish the hard way.  We ate at a restaurant there, and walked back to our hotel from the restaurant.  There was a very large beech area, shaped like a crescent moon.  I remember the cockroaches along the route were quite large.  We did see someone do a cliff dive which was really cool.  (Similar to the dive in this blog.)  He had to wait until the waves were just right before he dived.  A few of us were even able to attend church there, so we were there on a Sunday.

Rose Bowl

In my life I have been to the Rose Bowl Parade three times, and the Rose Bowl twice.  The first was with my family, and was in conjunction with a trip to Disneyland.  This was during my first grade, and my dad took us to California while we were moving away from the farm in Othello.  We eventually ended up in Idaho Falls living with my grandmother for the rest of the year.  Back to the Rose Bowl Parade.  We didn't not arrive early, and so had to scramble for a place we could see the floats and the parade.  The floats were nice, but the most impressive thing was seeing many actors, especially cowboys on horseback.  My older sisters, and I guess myself as well were really impressed with the cast of Bonanza as they rode past on their horses.  I mean, seeing Hoss Cartwright, and Ben and Adam and Little Joe.  That was really something.  

Not my picture, but my memory.  This is labeled 1961.  We were at the parade Jan. 1 1964.

Then as teenagers we returned to the parade two more times.  This time we traveled with the DeBolt family.  carol had moved into Hyrum and we befriended them.  Carol was a big fan of Ohio State, and in the 70s Ohio State played in the Rose Bowl several consecutive years; 1973-1976.  We traveled with them for the 1975 and 1976 rose Bowls.  
Carol was a great fan of Ohio State.  They played four seasons in a row at the Rose Bowl, and we boys went twice a road trips to Pasadena.  Weldon only went with us the second year, as he was on his mission the yer before.  We would arrive in town, early morning on Christmas Eve, and head strait for the beach for a good wading adventure.  We would then establish ourselves along the parade route.
We slept on the street to have a good spot for the parade.  We would camp at the corner of Orange grove Blvd and Colorado Blvd.  The parade turns here (more than a 90 degree turn) which gives you a view of both sides of the floats.  We would be some of the first to arrive, and we would claim our spots with our sleeping bags.  This would be a spot to sleep the night and then also a curbside spot for the parade.  This corner was very popular and the crowd would fill in.  Radio stations also liked this corner and would do the interview on the street.  The grandstands were just before the intersection, so we would get to hear the bands put on their best show.  It could get pretty cold sleeping out on December 31, even if we were in California.  Also there were not got rest room facilities.  the nearest was over a mile away in the Jack-in-the-Box.  Walking down the road we would see homeless people, and other people camped our for the night.  There were even barrels with fires in them for people to get warm.  We would sleep the best we could, but we were always up early so no one could claim our spot along the curb.  
One year hank Aaron was the Grand Marshall of the parade.  This was shortly after he broke the record for home runs.  We always enjoyed the floats, but those with animation and familiar characters were always the best.  
Carol Debolt always brought a big cooler with sandwich fixings for food, so we got by OK.  After the parade, we walked down the hill to the Rose Bowl for the football game.  It wasn't too bad of a walk, closer than that Jack-in-the-Box.  Both years Ohio State lost.  The first year they had won handily the year before against USC.  However this year the lost by one point to USC in a hard fought game.  the next year the lost by about five points to UCLA.  At the time the Rose Bowl pitted the Big 10 Champion against the PAC 10.  Weldon missed the first year, but was with us the second as he had returned from his mission.  
One year the Volkswagen van Carol drove had issues.  We were stopped in the desert for some time for repair.   It would take to long to get an ordered part, so they repaired the alternator with cardboard, and showed me how to do it.  I had to use the cardboard to get a correct gap so the spark plugs would fire.  It actually stopped again and I had to fix it in Las Vegas.  While in Las Vegas I saw somebody following somebody else.  I thought that was weird so followed the person following.  He told me he was an undercover policeman and I shouldn't be following him.   I got the car put back together and it got us home, and then died.